Maneuverist Approach to War Fighting

BRITISH MILITARY DOCTRINE

& THE MANOEUVRIST APPROACH TO OPERATIONS

The aim is to explain the British Armed Forces’ way of thinking when fighting its wars in order that all Officers adopt the same

approach

AIM

BRIEFING

• Background• Hierarchy of Doctrine• The New Thinking• Attacking the Enemy’s Will & Cohesion• The OODA Loop• The Manoeuvrist Approach

• The Core Functions of Find, Fix & Strike• Deep, Close & Rear Operations

• Summary

BACKGROUND

To analyse and record accumulated military experience is to produce doctrine

• What is Doctrine?

• Influence of Bagnell in 1989

THE HIERARCHY OF DOCTRINE

Design for Military Operations: The British Military Doctrine

British Defence Doctrine

STRATEGIC

Army Doctrine Publications

OPERATIONAL

Army Field Manuals

TACTICAL

THE NEW THINKING

• Shift away from destroying to defeating• Think in terms of defeat not destroy• Attack the enemy’s will to fight• Deprive enemy of his will to fight• Work on what your enemy thinks is happening• Deprive the enemy of his will to resist

ATTACKING THE ENEMY’S WILL

• Pre-Emption• Dislocation• Disruption

PRE-EMPTION

Deny the enemy the ability to gather his strength

• Strike at him early• Do not allow him to concentrate his forces• Do not allow him to deliver instructions

DISLOCATION

Deny the enemy the ability to bring his strength to bear

• Avoid his strengths• Prevent him exploiting his strengths• Drag him into arena of your choice• Frustrate his plans• Avoid attritionalist tendency to fight like with like• Functional or positional dislocation

DISRUPTION

Attack the enemy selectively to break apart his assets and cause confusion

Break the enemy’s ability to...

• To select and maintain his aim• To concentrate his force• To maintain his morale

ATTACKING THE ENEMY’S COHESION

• Firepower• Tempo• Simultaneity• Surprise

FIREPOWER

Shatter the enemy’s moral & physical cohesion

TEMPO

How quickly a task can be completed and another started. Fast turn around

of missions, plans and orders. Disruption and chaos caused

SIMULTANEITY

So many things are happening to the enemy at any one time that he

overloads and makes wrong decisions

SURPRISE

Forces the enemy to make uneconomic use of time by disrupting

his cohesion

The synergy of these 4 facets with each other creates a situation where the

enemy cannot cope. Key is to present enemy with unexpected changes with which he cannot cope

Achieved by adherence to the OODA cycle

THE OODA LOOP

Observe

Orientate

Decide

Action

THE MANOEUVRIST APPROACH

• A warfighting philosophy• A whole way of going about business• Opposite of attritional approach• Emphasis on physical activity• Mental activity required to outwit• How we approach operations

Put concepts into practice through...

THE CORE FUNCTIONS

• Find• Fix• Strike

FIND

• Locating the enemy• Identifying the enemy• Assessing strength of enemy

FIXING

• Denying the enemy his goals• Distracting the enemy from his objectives• Depriving enemy of his freedom of action

STRIKING

• Manoeuvring into position of advantage• Threaten or hit the enemy• Analogy with surface & gaps

• Flow around surfaces/Enemy strengths• Pour through gaps/Enemy weaknesses

• Hit with superior & unexpected force• Give enemy no respite

Operations to find, fix and strike may be simultaneous and must be integrated.

Integrated and organised within a frameworkof Deep, Close & Rear Operations

DEEP OPERATIONS• Fix the enemy• Keep him from his objectives• Constrain his freedom of action• • 3 principal activities

• Deception• Deep surveillance/Target acquisition• Interdiction

Focus on enemy’s vulnerabilities

CLOSE OPERATIONS

• Strike the enemy to eliminate combat power• Concerned with winning current battles• Direct contact with enemy

REAR OPERATIONS

• Freedom of action by protecting own force• Sustaining own force in combat• Retain freedom of movement for reserves

• Avoid enemy strengths and attack weakness• Focus on enemy rather than ground• Seek to defeat him by attacking his will• Act more quickly than enemy can react• Do the unexpected

SUMMARY

THE MANOEUVRIST APPROACHTo

defeat rather than destroy

andcohesion

firepower tempo simultaneity surprise

by attacking theenemy’s will

pre-emption dislocation disruption

employing theCore Functions

find fix strike

in aframeworkof operations

deep close rear

QUESTIONS